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Doc (an abbreviation of document) is a file extension for word processing documents; it is associated mainly with Microsoft and their Microsoft Word application. Historically, it was used for documentation in plain-text format, particularly of programs or computer hardware, on a wide range of operating systems. Almost everyone would have used the doc file format, whenever you write a letter, do some work or generally write on your PC you will use the doc file format. It was in the 1990s that Microsoft chose the doc extension for their proprietary Microsoft Word processing formats. As PC technology has grown the original uses for the extension have become less important and have largely disappeared from the PC world.

Early versions of the doc file format contained mostly formatted text, however development of the format has allowed doc files to contain a wide variety of embedded objects such as charts and tables from other applications as well as media such as videos, images, sounds and diagrams. doc files can also contain mail merge information, which allows a word-processed template to be used in conjunction with a spreadsheet or database.

MP3 is a digital music format which allows CD tracks to be reduced to around a tenth of their normal size without a significant loss of quality. MP3 gets rid of a lot of the information recorded in a song that our ears are not able to hear and then uses complex algorithms to reduce the file size. This then enables you to get hundreds of songs on to a CD and it also has opened up a new market over the internet - the download market as download times have been significantly reduced.

The MP3 format is a lossy format. That means that an MP3 file does not contain 100% of the original audio information. Instead, MP3 files use perceptual coding. In other words, that means it removes the information that your ear doesn't notice thereby making the file smaller. The reason lossy formats are used over RAW is that RAW audio files are too large to travel over the internet at any great speed. By using lossy formats it enables even dial up users to download mp3 files at a reasonable speed. RAW file formats generally require 176,000 bytes per second compared to a lossy format which requires 17,600. The difference is massive and so are the download times.